Washingtonians

[Cowgirlgrace]

Dave, So sad to read about your daughter. It's not fair when a parent has to bury a child. Peace be with you.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Atwood?
Are you guys related to the Atwoods up here in wenatchee? They do cherry farming.

What did she have? I'm 21 and by the time i finished reading and saw her age it made me very sad.

No relation that I know of. She had colon cancer.

We lost a young member of our family to colon cancer about 5 years ago.
He would not go get his regular colonoscopies.
he went in the army, and after a thorough physical, and colonoscopy, the army said he was fine, no problems at all.
So he believed them.
The polyps returned with a vengence & the rest is the history not unlike your own.
So sad!!!

Justine was 23 also.
He had married, and left 2 very small babies.

They live in Virginia.
He was my sister's son.

 

[Chickielady]

OMG..............Joplin Mo is devastated!!
Where is our Eenie?????????

These tornadoes have been hitting hard!
Does it seem that there are more of them, and they are stronger than past years ?
isn't tornado season in the fall?
Makes me wonder what kind of hurricane season we will have...

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
I will never deal with broody hens again!
It was SOOO cute, but the end result has been chicks grown up that are flighty, freaky, scared to death of humans.
Broody-raised chicks are afraid of humans.
this is taught to them by hen.
I now have a whole generation of freaked out ameraucana that will fly right up into the ceiling every time I walk into the coop...one just broke a wing, several I have clipped wings as they are so freaked by the apperance of humans.
And the mention of the fact that they do not lay during this time...having several broody hens can really screw things up.

I plan on taking them away after they hatch

That may creat a very freaked out hen!
I honestly do not know what she will do if you swipe her babies...anyone else ever do this?
Maybe you could leave her 1 or 2 ?
She will have to have her own area with access to the outdoors, away from other birds.
It takes space, if you have space & an extra chick, why not?
You can always take the "good" chicks away & replace a few hatchery chicks under her in the dark of night.
I have removed eggs at day 17, (and locked them dow in the incubator)and then placed several cornish cross meat chicks under the broody hen.
She was very happy the next morning to find she had babies.
I had a great hatch in the incubator, and after amonth and a half, we had chicken in the freezer.

 

[Chickielady]

For some unknown reason, I am getting less & less eggs every day.
From a coop with 3 mature and 5 POL pullets, I am getting 1 egg.
From a coop with 4 mature hens & 6 POL pullets, I am lucky to get 2 or 3 eggs.
from a coop of 5 mature hens and 1 POL pullet, 2 eggs.
They all have lights that come on at 5 AM & off at 8 PM.
They have free range & the best feeds & treats.
The only thing I can think of is this cruddy cool weather.
Maybe they cannot tell if it is spring or fall?
Anyone else having this happen?
I should be getting about 20 eggs a day and a handful of fart eggs.
Instead I am getting about 4 eggs.

 

[Chickielady]

OK, talking to myself here..
I am going to go get a very heavy motorcycle out of the trailer..that has no brakes and we will have to lash it to a fence post lest it roll away....
Then we go to South Bend to get 1 more 20 foot garden box.
I am 1 box short with all the garden starts almost ready to plant.
I cut a hole in the hoop house yesterday to let the monster out, and out it came and today he is out a few feet already.
Do not stand next to the monster for any minutes of time or it will wrap big strong tendrils around your ankle!!!
I am going to upload a monster photo here in a minute...

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
We are just starting to "recover" from very similar stuff. I had thought a lot of it was due to having to use the 16% for a while and then all of the canned corn DW decided to feed them. But I also think the wonderful swamp enviroment has a lot to do with it. We are at about a dozen a day right now. I am still not real happy with 12 / 23. That means that we have about 50% slackers.
Slackers it's what's for dinner

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
Tornado season is from around April to June, but tornados can happen in any month. Joplin is only 3 1/2 hours (195 miles) away from me. I am not sure where Eenie lives. This past week end was very active with tornados around here, Saturday last report say in Kansas 14 confirmed tornado had touched down. Topeka had a big funnel cloud go over it but it never got real close to the ground.

 

[Chickielady]

What is odd is since February, they were all laying, every mature hen anyways, and it was colder & rainy-er then.
And mine were always on a layer special & free range.
They should be laying more now, not less.
And the only thing that would slow them is disease or HOT weather, and we have none of that.
I want input from eveyone else please?

 

[Chickielady]

You remember I set out 4 monster pumpkins & 4 spaghetti squash a week ago in the new, 1 week old hoop house ?
Then, last week:

This morning, exactly 1 week later:

Spaghetti squash on the left
and the Monsters:

They will grab and wrap around anything, in about 10 minutes...wish I had a time lapse camera!!!!!

It is so cold this morning!!!
Brrrrrrrrrr, seems like it could snow.
Temp guage says 50, but it feels like 40...